Oral history interview with Patricia Westergren

Abstract

Patricia Westergren worked as a program manager for Sperry Rand Univac and successor companies, after graduating from the University of Minnesota, working in the Computer Systems Division and the Air Traffic Control Division. She discusses patterns and expectations about women’s career paths, which she upended after completing an executive training rotation and then going in to Marketing. Much of her work entailed contract negotiations with other corporate units and external companies. John Westergren, her husband, comments also on her career and his observations about company culture. They both discuss work-family balancing. Later in her career she managed software development for MedNet.

This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”